With William Hartnell, Jackie Lane, Michael Craze, Anneke Wills.
Written by Ian Stuart Black (based on an idea by Kit Pedler).
Script-edited by Gerry Davis.
Directed by Michael Ferguson. Produced by Innes Lloyd.

Synopsis: The Doctor, Dodo, Polly, and Ben attempt to halt the efforts of
a supercomputer called WOTAN to seize control of humanity.

When I first saw The War Machines, I was looking forward to an
improvement over The Gunfighters.
Seeing it again, I would have to say that The
Gunfighters is vastly more entertaining. The War Machines is a
prototype for the later UNIT stories, being the first of that class of
present-day invasion of Earth tales. Unfortunately, it is also probably
the worst.

The story is simple and cliched: a computer figures humans have had
their day and decides to build war machines to take over the world. This
is the first result of Kit Peddler's scientific advice, and its attempts
at scientific accuracy only make the absurdity of the whole thing more
dated. But that is a small thing, easily forgiven in Doctor Who.
The real problem is that a realistic computer-- with no personality--
makes an awfully dull opponent. It possesses people (through the rather
eerie mechanism of moaning at them over the phone), but then they usually
become as unemotional and uninteresting as it is. Most of the rest of the
story seems to be an experiment with letting soldiers and War Machines run
loose. Unfortunately, none of the soldiers are given characters-- or, to
my memory, even names. As for the War Machines-- well, in a series that
produced the Daleks, it is hard to accept less, and something that looks
like a great cardboard box with spinning tapes and bad breath hardly seems
threatening.

This is strange, because Doctor Who usually hasn't the budget
to make that kind of mistake with action. Here, the story probably could
have been saved by cutting gun battles and rampaging machines and making
good use of the insidious phone calls and the wiles of possessed people.
The scene where Dodo tries to extract information from a Doctor dazed by a
phone call from WOTAN is excellent, and Polly under the influence has her
moments too. But in the end, the show seems to be determined to
demonstrate that it can be realistic enough to be boring.

Perhaps the best way to see The War Machines is as a first
experiment. The later Cyberman stories (Tomb
of the Cybermen and The Invasion)
emphasize conflict between the human characters. After a couple of
triumphs in later years (The Web of Fear
and The Invasion) the formula was
right for Pertwee, UNIT, and the Master.

The human servants of WOTAN (particularly Professor Brett) are all
well played and written, though some sequences seem to belabor the obvious
a little. WOTAN is an excellent concept, and the "Doctor Who is required!"
line is amusing. The takeover of Polly is a mistake though, as is her
betrayal of WOTAN. The War Machines themselves are some of the best
monsters in the Hartnell era, being impressive and almost frightening in
some scenes.

Hartnell is great as always, Micheal Craze and Anneke Wills play their
roles well, and Jackie Lane, though a little below par, is okay. Sir
Charles is another funny character, and the Infernos owner is well played.
The soldiers and the Minister are well acted too.

The script is amusing, if a little obvious, the design and effects are
all good, and the 1966 setting is well used, with the Inferno scenes being
particularly good, and the Ben/Polly relationship is well written.

You can only say that its an enjoyable runaround. Good points, bad
points, and you end up with a story which can be enjoyed immensely.
6/10

I'll be the first to admit that I don't dabble much in the Hartnell
years. Not that I really dislike the first Doctor, but he's not my
favorite. Give me a good McCoy, Troughton, or Baker story anyday.

But every once in a while, an unexplained urge seizes me to power up
the VCR and journey back to the Hartnell years. Or better yet, to buy one
of his stories on video. Which explains how I came to the War Machines.
Those wonderful people at The Doctor Who Restoration Team Website found
some old footage that needed to be restored to this adventure. I'm glad
they did because it's the lure that really whetted my appitite to see this
story again and, perhaps, discover something new and exciting about it.

And it worked.

The War Machines has been described as the first "modern"
Doctor Who adventure. After spending two and a half seasons
avoiding the modern day, the Doctor and Dodo return to London for an
adventure. In many ways, this story can be seen as an early seed for the
UNIT stories that will emerge during the Troughton era. And, overall, the
modern setting helps quite a bit. It gives us some interesting areas to
look at and helps ground the story a bit more in reality.

Usually when fandom refers to 60s Who that was set in London,
the images that come mind are the Yeti in the underground or the fantastic
location shots of the Cybermen emerging from the sewers. Yet, The War
Machines has some of this, but it's not as readily burned into the
collective Who psyche. I think part of it is that The War
Machines is the experimental story-- trying to see what will happen
when set in modern times. And for the most part, the settings aren't
really that memorable. I mean, is it really plausible that there are this
many warehouses in London, producing these incidious machines? Another
fact may be that we only see one War Machine at a time, which takes down a
bit on the menance.

And, of course, it's got the big continuity error. WOTAN and several
other cast members refer to the good Doctor as "Doctor Who." For me, it's
one of those things like seeing the wires on Toberman in Tomb of the Cybermen-- I just let it slide off and not
detract from my enjoyment. The creators in the 60s had no idea that the
series would last this long, much less me scrutinized in such detail as we
do today. Such errors exist and the series is stronger for them. It gives
us something to debate about or cringe at. But taken for what it is, four
fairly well done episodes, The War Machines really stands out as a
decent, fun Hartnell adventure. It's not a classic on the level of The Daleks or The Aztecs, but it's still a joy to watch.

The War Machines is a really weird story, but a fun one. It's
weird because it juxtaposes elements so recognisable from later Who
with the style and characters of the Hartnell era. Of course, it is the
forerunner for The Faceless Ones, The Web of Fear, The Invasion and most of the Pertwee era, but is still
partly stuck in the old era.

There is a certain naivet?about the Hartnell episodes: a sense of
wonder that tends to gloss over implausibilities, a sense of fantasy
rather than science fiction. The War Machines demonstrates this
early on, as the Doctor gains access to WOTAN with, apparently, no
questions at all from the authority figures who surround it. The problem
is, with Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis starting to shape the show, some
'proper' science-fiction begins to creep in, a (rather simplistic) attempt
to predict the future. These aspects tend to jar when viewed today.

However, there is a great deal to enjoy about The War Machines.
The strangeness of the situation makes it unique among Doctor Who
stories, which makes it seem oddly refreshing. Hartnell, aside from a
couple of dodgy deliveries, is on fine form. Jackie Lane sort of fades
away, and so doesn't get a final chance to prove her worth; I barely
noticed she had gone. By contrast, Michael Craze and Anneke Wils are both
great in their introductory story, demonstrating that they are only
poorly-remembered by fans because most of their stories -- indeed, their
episodes -- have been burnt. Ben calling the Doctor "sir" is a great
little piece of characterisation.

Michael Ferguson later proved himself adept at handling action-based
Who, and his work on The War Machines looks like him trying
his hand, as it's almost up to the standard of his superb work on The Ambassadors of Death. The scenes outside
the "Inferno" night-club create a remarkable sense of space. The design is
also good, though WOTAN looks very much like a 60's idea of a computer "at
least ten years ahead of its time".

The plot, particularly, seems like Pertwee-by-numbers: Man as both
protagonist and antagonist. The Doctor antagonising civil servants and
enlisting the help of the army. The dialogue, apart from certain infamous
examples (you know which ones), is up to standard too.

Not only is The War Machines a curio, in its signposting of
where Doctor Who would head in three years' time and signalling
that the show had already moved out of the Hartnell era, but it's also
enjoyable in its own right. The plot hangs together (except when War
Machine #9 climbs the Post Office Tower), it's well acted and is full of
fun bits (especially the end credits, which read "and WOTAN"). I can't see
it being anybody's favourite story but it's always worth a watch.

The first fruit of Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis' attempts to make
Doctor Who more realistic, this story contains ideas that would
either become very familiar or never be seen again. As such, it's a real
curate's egg.

The plot, concerning WOTAN and its plan to conquer the Earth, seems
very oddly paced -- the nature of WOTAN's plan is established early in
Episode 2, therefore the remaining episodes seem to move like treacle; Ben
sees what's going on and tries to talk Polly out of her conditioning;
there's an endless raid on the warehouse by troops; and finally the Doctor
takes twenty minutes to immobilize a War Machine. I know the Hartnell era
was sedately paced compared to later eras, but this story takes it too
far. The performances are varied too. William Hartnell tries hard to
sound knowledgeable about computers, but his Doctor didn't encounter them
too often, so his delivery is very awkward. Jackie Lane's Dodo is given
one of the worst ever exits -- that said, she isn't that impressive early
on (her "BBC English" accent has become far too perfect), but she improves
greatly when she is hypnotized. The scene where she thinks the Doctor has
become conditioned and tries to explain the plan to him being chillingly
portrayed.

However, the big plaudits go to Michael Craze -- Ben is superb
throughout, becoming the Doctor's mobile eyes and ears, while also being
concerned about Polly. Anneke Wills is good for the first episode and a
half, but becomes almost robotic when she is taken over. The same can be
said for the other "zombies" -- just because they have been possessed
doesn't mean you have to act like a piece of cardboard.

Although the story features "troops" (later to be superseded by UNIT
troops) battling an enemy impervious to gunfire, they are very faceless
indeed. The best character is Sir Charles Summer -- a more senior
establishment sidekick to the Doctor than his later successors. The War
Machines themselves are pretty well designed, except for the silly
overhanging back (on which William Hartnell bangs his head in Episode 4!)

The story also features some great touches, such as the pub regulars
watching television news bulletins on the attack, a police car roaming the
streets broadcasting "stay indoors" messages, and the great scene where a
member of the general public is attacked in a telephone booth. This type
of scene, with the public being involved, was seldom seen again in the
UNIT years -- there, the public were just dead bodies to add atmosphere.

The War Machines is very badly paced, and features some very
wooden performances, but it is redeemed by some great work from William
Hartnell, Michael Craze and William Mervyn; good design of the War
Machines themselves; superb scenes of public warnings and ongoing reports;
the boarding of the TARDIS by Polly and Ben in a great closing scene; and
the utterly brilliant Episode 3 cliffhanger. A patchy, but very enjoyable
tale.

This is a story, that at the time when it was made, was revolutionary
in the context of the Hartnell Era. It's a story blatantly aspiring to be
more cutting-edge than all of the far-fetched futuristic yarns, or the
Carry-On film influenced historicals like The
Romans. The makers of the story blatantly go for every device they can
that adds a contemporary and realistic flavour- trusty BBC newsreader
Kenneth Kendall's broadcast, the use of the famous Post Office Tower, the
pub interior (Styled on Coronation Street, no less), and also the
"Inferno" night club setting.

This approach, trying to make use of the increasingly vibrant times of
the mid-1960s leads to the welcome introduction of a new pair of
companions. Polly is very well acted by Anneke Wills, portraying a
cheerful, likeable, and intelligent character, intended to represent the
hip mid-Sixties. Ben is played equally well, by Mike Craze, and proves, to
be a sort of 1960s Jamie-type character- not as sophisticated or "with-it"
as Polly, the banter between them in the nightclub in the opening episode
is refreshingly fun, especially in contrast to the Doctor and Dodo's
lifeless chats early on. In stark contrast to the promising new arrivals
on the companion front, Miss Dodo Chaplet is very poorly acted and
written, and i have to say it was a relief when she did go so early into
the story, as Lane's poor performance was a millstone around the story's
neck early on.

Hartnell has an interesting time as the Doctor, being oddly aloof from
the action, almost completely for the first half of the story, and then,
in Episode Three turning into an all-knowing scientist figure, which is at
odds with his erratic portrayal in episodes 1 and 2 (Hartnell's portrayal
shifted in these episodes from that of a batty old grandad to a Holmesian
master of deduction). Hartnell really seems a little out of place,
spouting dialogue unsuited to his Doctor, and his delivery has little
conviction. The Doctor appears merely as a bumbling, grandfatherly
overseer, and the inexplicable change in his character midway through is
singular. Perhaps though, this lack of reliance on the Doctor in the
opening two installments was a good move, as it gave the chance to the
other characters to shine.

Not that the guest cast does shine in the slightest, they seem solely
to be going through the motions. Professor Brett and Krimpton, for
instance are very cliched characters. The actors of these two give fair
performances but have no real intentions of rising above the uninteresting
material they're given. Sir Charles Summer is convincingly portrayed by
William Mervyn, as a rather faceless, passive politician, but you get the
impression an actor as experienced as Mervyn clearly could've given Summer
more depth, but yet again, mediocrity is settled for. The Tramp character
is written and acted in an above average way as regards tramps in Dr
Who. That isn't saying much though really, is it? Amusingly risible
dialogue ("What is this, a nut house!") results, as does the stereotypical
Dr Who use of a tramp character as a fall guy, around merely to be
killed off, show off his unruly beard, and pull faces. In addition, it's
bewildering to me that WOTAN could consider the tramp "a danger" to it.

More positive areas are the use of great minimalist stock music at the
end of episode 1, the number of amusingly quotable lines (The "pricking
sensation" bit, the immortal "Dr Who is required! Bring him here...! line,
"Hmmm, fab gear....," "This bird saved my life," etc.) and the conviction
of the way WOTAN's threat is realised. Importantly there are two hugely
effective cliffhangers- episode 1's cliffhanger is, dare I say it, eerie,
and episode 3's is astonishingly well filmed by the director, Ferguson.
Hartnell's hands on lapels stance, and stubborn schoolmaster's expression
in squaring up to a war machine are brilliant, and it's the best directed
moment of the whole story.

Influences on the plot are few, but significant. The realistic devices
and use of the army are both reminiscent of Quatermass, and the
computerised type threat is akin to The Avengers. The portrayal of
Polly as a liberated female character owes a lot to the precedent set by
The Avengers with Cathy Gale and Emma Peel. However, the scene at
the Inferno club where Polly timidly asks an amorous admirer: "Please take
your hands off me," shows Polly sadly isn't intended to be that strong a
character.

The War Machines clearly decreases in interest as it develops;
the plot is far too straightforward, and tedium sets in around episode
Three. Hartnell's strangely disjointed performance is a curiousity, but
it's good to see new blood on the scene with a very promising pairing of
able seaman Ben and Polly. It really is a shame that the plot has little
depth and is confused in places. It is a story made very incisively
however, and one that marked a definite turning point for the series,
although the earthbound invasion genre only truly came to the fore in the
Pertwee years. It is testament to The War Machines that it all
feels so very refreshing, even in a season of such eclecticism.
(7/10)

How ironic it is that Doctor Who's first proper visit to the
present day contains so much of the programme's future - never mind Web of Fear or The Invasion,
here is the Pertwee/UNIT era prefigured in almost every detail. A threat
to contemporary Earth, the Doctor joining forces with the army, with a
stuffy Establishment figure as foil. A hip 'n' trendy female companion.
Monsters vs army battles. This much is obvious. But where many view The
War Machines as little more than experiment, the trailblazer that
would be much more successfully emulated by later stories. I disagree. It
stands up to comparison with almost any Pertwee/UNIT story I can think of.

Even thirty years on, with every viewer aware of its landmark status,
the sight of the Hartnell Doctor in and around 'modern' London remains
startling. After two and a half years of fairly staid costume drama and
Wellsian SF, The War Machines vibrates with a recognisable sense of
time and place (although in these internet-crazed times the central theme
remains relevant). It exudes 1966, swinging London, and the White Heat of
Technology, capturing the feel of its setting like no other story. Ben and
Polly debut impressively, easily overshadowing a rather lacklustre Jackie
Lane as Dodo.

The direction is also impressively ambitious. There are many memorable
shots, from the opening birds-eye-view of the TARDIS materialising, to the
passing of a War Machine reflected in a puddle. The army-versus-Machine
battles lack some of the pyrotechnical flair of later years but the climax
of episode three, with a War Machine bearing down on the defiant Doctor,
still had me reaching for the fast forward the first time I saw it. The
pace never slacks, almost unheard of in a black and white story. Even the
title captions are imaginatively reworked.

Of course, it's not perfect. Even as pallid a companion as Dodo
deserved a better departure than to be written out off-screen. The Doctor
sets himself up as a credentialed scientist a little too easily in episode
one. But these are minor faults, very minor indeed compared to the story's
strengths.

I'm baffled at the degree of notoriety the 'Doctor Who is required'
sequence has gained, as though it were some gaping flaw in the story, with
innumerable attempts to explain it away and many declarations that it's a
'continuity error'. It doesn't contradict continuity. It's never been
established that Doctor Who isn't in fact his name, and obsessing
over it just strikes me as rather peculiar and petty.

Because this is one 'landmark story' where historical importance is
matched by quality. Possibly the best full Hartnell story I've seen, it
continues to shine, even when judged by today's standards. Before watching
The War Machines for the first time recently, I was pretty sure
where I stood in relation to Doctor Who, sure which eras I liked,
which eras I didn't. I thought the programme had long since lost the
capacity to surprise me.

Obviously this was the blueprint for future Doctor Who stories;
being set on contemporary Earth (the first time since 100,000 BC`s opener and possibly Planet Of Giants), but also in terms of location
filming and in the introduction of Ben and Polly, both of whom add a bit
of life to the TARDIS being likeable and fun.

The plot in which WOTAN (pronounced Votaghn), a thinking computer tries
to create the internet is different enough to be entertaining. There are
plot holes though, Dodo gets a terrible farewell scene, the Doctor`s
acquaintance with Sir Charles is never explained and The War Machine
whilst impressive to look at mysteriously finds itself at the top of the
Post Office Tower. As I said it's entertaining just don`t examine the plot
too closely.

The final adventure of Doctor Who's third season sees the TARDIS
landing in one of the most obvious places in all the history of Earth -
the present day! Although the TARDIS had made a few appearances here
before, they had always been brief (such as The Massacre of St
Bartholomew's Eve) or small (Planet of Giants). But here the action is
large scale and the Doctor has wound up in the heart of the 'Swinging
Sixties'. The War Machines has a very fast pace and doesn't stop to
leave time for matters such as the Doctor quickly passing himself off to
gain access to the Post Office Tower or to explain how WOTAN is able to do
so much in the space of a few hours from first taking over Professor Brett
to having the War Machines under construction. Neither this, nor the speed
with which a tramps death winds up on the front page of a newspaper really
matters since this is a story of action.

The guest cast are not particularly notable at all with the possessed
characters all acting as though they are merely reciting the lines and
William Mervyn (Sir Charles Summer) is particularly poor, failing to be at
all convincing. The new companions Polly and Ben both make exceptionally
strong debuts and they are helped by the marginalisation of Dodo in this
story. Jackie Lane was rarely given a chance to shine and here she is
quickly despatched and is given an off-screen exit when she fails to
reappear at the end. This quick changing of the guard benefits the series
immensely as it allows the viewer to see the new companions in their
normal environment before they get taken away from it at the end of the
story. Both Michael Craze and Anneke Wills make strong debuts that show
much promise.

The Doctor comes across well in this story, quickly commanding
authority around him and even managing to get away with entering a
nightclub (where he gets mistaken for a DJ!). The cliffhanger to Episode 3
is exceptionally strong, showing the Doctor standing his ground against a
War Machine whilst everyone else flees. This scene illustrates how strong
a presence Hartnell is the stories in just a few seconds.

The various machines themselves are interesting. The War
Machines go for size and force rather than trickery and they look
highly realistic and believable. WOTAN suffers by contemporary comparisons
since whilst it is fast and uses phone lines it also lacks a monitor to
relay information. However a printer is far more useful for taking the
instructions away. It may refer to the lead character as 'Doctor Who' but
where in the series has this ever actually been contradicted? And WOTAN
did guess what 'TARDIS' means after all...

The War Machines is a story based on action and there's plenty
of it. It goes to lengths to convey the scale of the matter by showing
television broadcasts, radio transmissions and even foreign journalists
filing reports in order to show that this is more than just a small scale
event and in this it is successful. It is less strong in terms of acting
and character and so does not lend itself so well to repeated viewing. It
does however deserve praise for its originality in taking the TARDIS for a
full-length, full-sized story in the present day - something that was
truly revolutionary in its day. 7/10

What a shock to the system this story is. After so many exciting
adventures in time and space for the first Doctor to see him back on the
streets of contemporary London must have come as a bit of a shock for the
viewers of the time. Even now it seems a little distracting to watch
Hartnell aiding the military to destroy a threat to mankind, almost a
blueprint for the later Troughton/Pertwee adventures. As is usual with
these things... Hartnell got there first and it's another example of how
diverse his years were, especially season three. This story is so
different from The Gunfighters and The Celestial Toymaker that if this wasn't Doctor
Who it would just seem absurd that they were made in the same year.

It's a good story too and holds up well today. It might seem a little
pedestrian in its plotting but thats just the sixties for you. If this was
a JNT production we would have had the War Machines on the streets of
London killing people before the end of episode one but four decades ago
this was quite normal to have some considerable set up to make the menace
more threatening.

WOTAN is not particularly brilliant in itself, it's just a box of
flashing lights but it is the way it pulls in its hired help that gives it
that extra chill factor. Hypnotism by phone... quite a creepy concept and
it works magnificently when even the Doctor's trusty companion falls under
the spell. The humans vs computers idea is an old one now but by turning
humans into mindless slaves the threat seems painfully real, never better
demonstrated by the machine turning on one of the slaves just to prove how
effective its weaponary is. Scary.

Two things make this story really stand out though and one of them is
the excellent, stylish direction from Michael Ferguson who would go on to
give greater things in later years. The story looks extremely polished
from the inventive location work (lots of slanted shots of the post office
tower and the terrific opening shot of London with the TARDIS
materialising). The show is given a wonderful dramatic feel as we see the
War Machines being welded together and parts being delivered... it has a
fabulous 'realistic' that season season would later achieve. Even better
are the cuts to newsreports in people's homes and the local pub warning of
the dangers helping to suggest the gravity of the situation.

Even better is the introduction of Polly and Ben who prove to be
instantly engaging companions and far more effective that the somewhat
bland Dodo. What a relief it is to have two drop dead gorgeous companions
to care about and Ben's down to earth cockney attitude and Polly's high
and mighty personality proves quite wonderful to watch. They have
excellent chemistry and Ben's immediate loyalty to the Doctor is quite
excellent.

Hartnell is okay but showing the strain of the part now. His acting in
the first two episodes leaves a little to be desired... he does goof a lot
more than usual and has several moments of overacting. However once he
takes charge of the military operation his strengths are again in evidence
and he commands things with his usual style.

With three most unlikely companions heading off in the TARDIS it was
quite an optimistic time for a show that was having a few problems. The
War Machines is another sterling example of why I herald season three
so highly... atmospheric, interesting and beautifully put together.

As has been stated many times over, The War Machines is a
prototype for a brand of Doctor Who story which would become
incredibly popular with producers for the majority of the next twenty
three seasons. What I find so intriguing about this adventure is that it
feels so damn fresh, despite my having seen piles upon piles of later
entries that are similarly themed, and quite often superior. This can
probably come down the fact that The War Machines keeps very
eclectic company -- say what you will about the First Doctor's era, but it
is difficult to argue that it was a continual rehash of the same plot and
ideas.

Perhaps another reason that this story stands out from the pack is the
interesting tact it takes with its characters. Well, obviously not all of
them -- Sir Charles is as straight-laced as they come, and Professor Brett
and Major Green are almost completely faceless and rather woodenly acted
to boot. No, I am referring to the abundance of hip 60s swingers,
typified by Polly and to a lesser extent Ben, but also shown in Kitty, the
manager of the Inferno nightclub. It isn't that often that we see locales
and people in Doctor Who that really typify the "characteristics"
of the (then) contemporary Londoners. Kitty and Polly come across as
archetypes of the late sixties, whereas you could hardly argue that the
characters in a story like Arc of Infinity typify
early eighties archetypes. Personally I found this approach rather
refreshing, and may reveal the answer as to why I found the first part of
The War Machines to be the most interesting of the four.

Because really, WOTAN and the War Machines themselves were a bit silly.
Okay, silly may not be the right word; the threat to earth is portrayed in
a very wooden manner, resulting in the villain, like many of the
supporting characters, becoming almost completely faceless. One could
argue that since the villain is a computer, the faceless aspect is
logical, but one only has to look at Pedler's later creations, the
Cybermen, to see that a faceless baddie does not necessarily have to be
boring as hell. Even The Green Death's remarkable
similar nutty computer, BOSS, is giving personality to spare, and ends up
as a minor triumph. Of course, the problem with The War Machines'
WOTAN is it goes around bore-fying everone else in sight, until we end up
with the Doctor, Ben, and the hilariously plumy Sir Charles battling it
out against this adversary. It is a pity; the writer, Ian Stuart Black,
doesn't really take any risks with the script, and what we get in the end
is a leisurely paced B-grade actioner with unconvincing robots. It would
have been interesting to see Black try to tackle why humans wouldn't
progress any further without the help of WOTAN. Or the kinks that would
undoubtedly be inherent in a 1960s super-computer. I would have enjoyed
seeing WOTAN as a megalomaniac machine that has some serious flaws in its'
programming, as opposed to the supposedly infallible beast that showed up
on screen. Seeing it make mistakes as the Doctor gets closer to trapping
it would have made things more fun for my money.

There are some redeeming features, though. The aforementioned Sir
Charles, although a woefully conceived character, translates as hilarious
on screen as an aristocratic oaf completely out of touch with real life
("some sort of War Machine, I'm told", he confides in the minister
casually). The tramp is similarly amusing, livening up the story during
the dull War Machine tests in part two. Ben comes into the show as a
breath of fresh air, and Polly too makes a good impression. It's just a
pity that Dodo gets what is arguably the worst send off a companion ever
had, and that Billy Hartnell, although solid, isn't as great here as he is
known to have been in the past.

As sci-fi with a brain, The War Machines fails. As an
action-adventure, it just succeeds. And when it comes to
characterisation, it falls somewhere in-between. It generally manages to
get by on exuberance alone, and for that, I think it deserves a solid, if
unremarkable score. Solid and unremarkable, like the story as a whole.

Doctor Who isn't the perfect TV program. Every so often there is
a story you won't like. Time and the Rani has
vaguely decent acting and special effects, but an awful plot and dialogue.
The Monster of Peladon manages to be the dullest
piece of television ever, despite the fact half the cast are wearing
badger afros and Alpha Centauri appears.

But The War Machines is the story that pissed me off. Here was a
story I was not only embarassed about, but a story I despised. I wanted my
money back when I got the video (coupled with the fact I was, genuinely
ripped off - the special feature weren't on the tape). I watched it once,
seethed, watched the repeat on television and my hate grew. Believe me,
all those who enjoy and revere this story, I'm as surprised as you are.
It's well made and directed, and is complete. The actors are good, the
special effects reasonable, the cliffhangers exciting. I should like it. I
should at least tolerate it.

In the first episode, we are treated to the first Doctor and Dodo. My
problem lies with Dodo. Man, I know why she didn't last four episodes, and
was brainwashed for most of the two she was in - she's awful. "Imagine,"
she gasps, "Scotland Yard whisked off into time and space!" Must I? You
being whisked off in time and space was bad enough.

A policeman goes to check a police box. That wasn't there yesterday.
But is out of order. With an old man and a young girl in front of it
whispering. And the old man putting the sign marked OUT OF ORDER on the
front. Yet does nothing.

The Doctor is a very well-travelled alien time traveler. Yet, he is
stunned by the appearance of the Post Office Tower - and is convinced its
alien design broods trouble. Unsurprisingly, he quickly changes his story
when talking to the innocents working in it. Instead of being troubled by
the architecture, he hastily changes his story and explains there is a
"powerful magnetic field" around it which he can feel. Yet, a trained
scientist does not question this or even comment.

Now, onto WOTAN. Why not call it "Woe-tann" but "Vow-tarn" - I mean,
the Professor isn't foriegn, is he? He doesn't have an accent and "Brett"
isn't the most exotic of names. And after designing this fabulous machine,
Brett has no idea what it can do or what it knows - hasn't he even
bothered to check? [I now know, however, that this pronounciation is from
Wagner's ring cycle, but it doesn't excuse the fact this is never referred
to in the story itself. With Dodo around, anything can be explained
realistically to the audience]

"You've made a machine that can think of itself?" the Doctor boggles.
"AND NEVER MAKES MISTAKES?" Um, Doc, that police box you fly around in
also thinks for itself, remember? And those spaceships you muck about on
in the future - do you think they might be descended from this marvellous
machine? These devices that save lives every day and allow humanity to
progress SCARE you? The first thing you ask this know-it-all is a square
root question. It isn't a calculator, Doctor! Why not ask it one of those
"fox-the-computer-logic-tricks"? Or the square root of minus three? Come
on, you luddite, do something! Is he just worried that this sort of
technology shouldn't be available yet? Because his reaction is more "Burn
the heretic!" rather than "You've invented the internet 30 years early".

Dodo asks the computer what "Tardis" means. And it knows. Is the
fugitive time traveller on the run at ALL worried about this? Nope. It
also knows about a human called "Doctor Who". Now, I could cope with this
if it was talking about Peter Cushing and the humans got confused, but,
come on... A human? HUMAN? The "who" bit I can cope with, but "human"???
This computer knows everything but thinks humans have two hearts?? OK, he
didn't (maybe) have two hearts then, but he's not a human being at any
time!

WOTAN just bugs me. Why does it want to conquer the world? Um... it
thinks it can do a better job than humanity. And how does it demonstrate
this? By making weapons of mass destruction that slaughter everything in
sight. Is this ironic? No, it's stupid. In X days, it will be connected in
computers all over the planet and have a world wide web of fear and chaos
which it can conquer humanity. Instead, it wants to take over London with
an army of fridges.

This plan, it should be pointed out, is so freaking obvious a bit part
character - Kitson - works it all out by the end of part one and is not
impressed. The plan is also predicted by an American journalist, and the
idea is dismissed. "It would have no reason to conquer the world," Grover
insists. And he's right. It doesn't. But it's doing it anyway, wouldn't
you know?

How does it become sentient? No one knows or cares. It seems to take
days to create a telepathic hold on Brett, who complains about sensing
someone watching him, yet takes minutes to conquer Dodo. OK, bad example -
her brain isn't exactly amazingly deep and powerful - but in one night it
takes over half a dozen scientists via a phone line. Why? It only uses
them as slave labor anyone can do - Polly replaces a few with ease - and
their disappearance simply causes suspicion. "Work like the machines!"
roars that nutter at one point. Seriously. "Do not stop, do not waste
time!" Has this guy ever used a machine? Then he decides to gun down a
worker for target practise. One of the special, brainwashed workers that
they need so badly. Why not use that tramp? Oh, no, the wonderful computer
logic has decided to club him to death with spanners and dump his body
right outside their workshop (admittedly, a very creepy and scary scene -
but illogical and ultimately pointless). That should keep the authorities
guessing.

It can communicate telepathically with Brett, but no one else, and
relies on a print-out machine. Quite sensible, as its voice box sounds
like a strangled pig. Why not get Brett to attach something it can
actually work with? It has to send Polly to the others in order to relay
the complicated message "Stop killing passers by and dumping their bodies
in the street". I mean, get real: a computer doesn't realize that using
its slaves for target practise will require replacements until the last
minute, and then doesn't even hypnotize them?

And why does it start this plan all over a few days instead of before
the story starts? Does it need the Doctor? Why? The plan works fine
without him and, in fact, hits snags becuase they want to capture the
Doctor. Dodo, despite being controlled by a logical, computerized mind,
cannot come up with a convincing cover story and her attempts to capture
the Doctor ("Let's go down into this dark alley, Doctor!") aren't exactly
subtle. How can Dodo act like Dodo "convincingly" but Brett cannot?
Surely, the best thing to do would be to go to a press conference, smooth
out all the wrinkles ASAP and then return with Kitson. No, instead he
appears robotic, stares blankly into the distance, and acts suspiciously.
Kitson, however, acts true to himself, showing a bit of sadism and, oddly
enough, total stupidity. WOTAN presumably designed the War Machines and -
if it actually was a genius - would fit it with an off-switch. Or, at the
very least, have some idea what to do if it attacked him, so why doesn't
Kitson try to reprogram the War Machine instead of just diving in front of
its poison gas jets? The controls are on the OUTSIDE for heaven's sake!

The original title for this story was The Computers. Odd,
because there's only one computer involved. This story is called The
War Machines. We see two and only one plays any role in the story. It
does not wage war, but runs downtown and attacks phone boxes. Thank god
the military are using easily jammed weapons like machine guns and
grenades that, like every one knows, can be frozen by a "magnetic field".
Yes, should have thought of that. A bit of magnetism stops a
thermo-nuclear reaction in a grenade, huh?

The Doctor walks in and out of situations in this story like he owns
the place. Now, I can believe that. Seriously. The Doctor can bluff his
way through a variety of situations and this is no exception. But we don't
see him bluffing. One minute, he walks through a street, the next, he's
been allowed to the top floor of the GPO tower, into the most important
part of the structure with a computer. And they don't even know his name.
Bit of an explanation would help. Some say he is in fact being respected
because he is a mate of Ian Chesterton. Sigh. Ian Chesterton? The bit-part
science teacher who eloped with a history teacher for two years before
arriving back in mysterious circumstances with a tan? He had that much
respect in the scientific community? Look, I had a science teacher called
Hillyer who took two years off because he snapped his Achilles tendon. I
don't think I could wander into someone's office, house and home with that
kind of name drop. I don't think the Doctor could, either. Why DIDN'T they
explain that bit at the time. Would have been so difficult?

Finally, when the Doctor de-programs Dodo and sends her to the country
to recover. After the disaster, he waits outside the TARDIS for her. Why?
Why not pick her up from the country house? The only reason he'd be
waiting was if he got a message from her telling him to - so why does she
apparently change her mind? And why does she tell Ben and Polly? My head
hurts. Who Killed Kennedy comes up with a complicated
explanation that Dodo was captured by the CIA and brainwashed. Fair
enough. That's the explanation in 1996. What excuse did they have at the
time, huh?

However, I cannot leave the review unfinished. Every story has a good
side. So, I should do the positive elements in this story, for, yes, there
are some. That crash-zoom at the start of the story as we see the TARDIS
appear on a street corner. Very nice. Ben and Polly are magnificent in
this story and it is a damn pity there isn't another complete one with
them in. The Doctor being mistaken for a DJ - how cool is that? And it's
great to see the First Doctor getting on so well with just about everyone.
This guy really HAS been everywhere. No complaining about the noise, the
fashions, the drinks... That noise WOTAN and the War Machine makes manages
to keep on the side of freaky and not become irritating. Kitson's little
speech about humanity, though rather corny and delivered at the wrong
time, is very good - no matter what, a human life is more important than
any machine. Sorry, K9. The bit where a baddie explains that Dodo has
failed to capture the Doctor is surely cutting edge; in any other story,
she would have been punished or killed for her failure. The blank
roboticness of the brainwashed people are very creepy. And Polly... Jeez,
I'm still impressed at her total lack of blinking. She does have big eyes,
doesn't she? Another point in The War Machine's favor - a note of
subtext. Just as WOTAN (for want of a better word) rebels against the
humans, one of his war machines rebels against him. Nice irony, that.

The cliffhangers are pretty good, all in all. The Doctor standing up to
the War Machine is very good - though, I wonder what the hell he was going
to do if the bloody thing wasn't impressed by his Tiannamen Square tactic.
And Ben getting caught in the spotlight's pretty freaky. Am I wrong, or
does that W for Wotan appear in the end credits all the time? Nice
corporate logo - no alien invader should be without one (and I'm looking
at you, Daleks). The Doctor ducking out when no one notices is cool, too.
And isn't this the first time in the show someone is hypnotized for GOOD
reasons?

A lot of plot details don't make sense, but here is an explanation:

WOTAN isn't Y2K compliant. In fact, he's so badly designed that he went
doodally 34 years early. This whole plan goes to pieces because WOTAN is
utterly insane. Thus, all his followers are, as well. You know, the story
makes a lot of sense all of a sudden.

That is why I think this story is worst. Any good potential is wasted
in this. A plot that doesn't make sense on the first viewing, is full of
ridiculous cliched dialogue and pointless action sequences and a pathetic
Dalek substitute. People say this is a template for the Jon Pertwee era. I
think they're being very rude.

Nevertheless, think I can forgive The War Machines. But its
faults are numerous and it seems written for something that isn't
Doctor Who.

This story wrong-footed me. WOTAN is a computer with megalomaniac
ambitions that can hypnotise people over the telephone. That's genuinely
scary. Sounds like The Invasion, right? We're
all going to get brainwashed and mankind's last hope is going to be the
Doctor and four or five of his stoutest chums. That's what I assumed,
anyway, but no. WOTAN uses a little hypnosis in the early episodes, but
thereafter it's brute force all the way. The plan seems to be to declare
war on Britain and soon afterwards the world, with a force of twelve
computer-controlled tanks. I'm sure it was planning to back this up with
hypnosis, but even so I'm not impressed so far with its claims to greater
efficiency and logic.

Perhaps, despite appearances, it can't really hypnotise people over the
telephone after all? Those calls might have merely been triggering
conditioning that had been subconsciously implanted earlier. Brett,
Krimpton, Major Green, the Doctor and Dodo had all visited the Post Office
Tower in person, with Brett making a point of bringing Krimpton all the
way upstairs. I always thought it was strange that they never put Ben on
the phone to WOTAN in episode three. The obvious move, surely? But no,
they put him to work unhypnotised. This would explain much, although even
then I've hardly got started on Episode Three's head-scratchers. Major
Green never stops haranguing and intimidating his mindless workforce and
has some bizarre disciplinary ideas. Tiredness is punishable by summary
execution, while betraying WOTAN to the enemy will merely get you sent
back off for unspecified "punishment". Eh? They're zombies! You might
as well expend your energies on punishing a door handle. I can only think
that the hypnosis isn't entirely stable, as indeed is demonstrated by
episode three's ten-minute sequence with Ben and Polly. I liked that.

In fact, if you think about it, this mind control is rather remarkable.
It's a plot device that's normally boring as hell. Victims will have two
modes: "I obey" and occasionally "Must... Fight...!" We've seen both a
million times and they're both dull, turning characters into pseudo-robots
whose behaviour is entirely predictable. This story though seems unaware
of the cliches, instead coming up with lots of ways for its hypnotised
people to surprise me. Take Professor Brett walking in on that press
conference, for instance. That's one of the more striking "I'm
hypnotised" entrances I can remember seeing.

The War Machines on the other hand are wonderful just because they're
so goofy. Huge, clunky and reminiscent of the Cleaners from Paradise Towers, what makes them cool is their hammer
arm. They're the stars of the second half of the story, taking over in
that role from WOTAN himself. In episode one I thought he was all the
more sinister for operating without words, but then at the cliffhanger it
finally spoke and I almost fell off my chair. That voice! Stone me. No
one today would even think of giving an evil computer a voice like that.
I'd have said those were its first rough efforts at producing speech if
hadn't kept it up throughout all four episodes. Awesome.

That's this story all over. It's inventing a new Doctor Who
genre, the alien menace invading contemporary London. However, it's also
a distinctly atypical example of how the genre would eventually evolve.
Look at how the progress of the War Machines gets discussed on TV in pubs,
by the real-life newsreader Kenneth Kendall and even by international
commentators. A far cry from entire alien invasions going unnoticed,
isn't it? Then there's Sir Charles Summer, who's theoretically the
substitute Brigadier. He's urbane, affable and can get ministers dancing
at his beck and call. He trusts the Doctor immediately and doesn't waste
a second on knee-jerk paranoia, but he also gets all pompous with scruffy
lowlifes who don't know their place. That would be Ben. In his way, he's
harder to handle than the Brigadier ever was.

Oh, and there's a fan theory I'd like to address. The Doctor senses
evil, saying he last felt it in the presence of the Daleks, which of
course is quite the coincidence since as it happens they really are in
London at this time and actively plotting against him. The War
Machines, The Faceless Ones and Evil of the Daleks all take place on this one busy day
in 1966. That much we all know. However, I'd like to speculate further
that maybe the Daleks were behind this story too. See how desperate WOTAN
is to capture the Doctor? Furthermore, not only does it know a name for
him, one we've never heard anywhere else, but it even knows what TARDIS
stands for. That's just impossible. You couldn't deduce it. It's not
even as if there was an internet back then for it to access, despite its
efforts to create one. The obvious conclusion would seem to be that
someone must have told it, for which the Daleks would be as likely
candidates as any.

The mind control is also a clever trick, to put it mildly. Who
developed and installed that hardware plug-in, eh?

However the most remarkable thing for me was the opening. With the
noise of a descending spaceship, the camera flies over London and zooms
into the spot where the TARDIS is about to land! Presumably it's meant to
indicate WOTAN looking down from the Post Office Tower, but it reminded me
of the opening to Remembrance of the Daleks. That's
not the only similarity, incidentally. You'd even think the two stories
had shared some sets. Watching this heightened my appreciation of that
story's verisimilitude and I'm tempted to suggest watching the two of them
together as a double bill. In particular note both stories' awareness of
their era, to a degree that in The War Machines is actually
startling. You never got this from the UNIT era.

I've seen it suggested that the story feels surprising because of
William Hartnell, but I think it's all that location filming. It gives it
a documentary feel. 1966 London is getting shot almost like Paris in City of Death. The production's clearly aware that, for
the Hartnell era, contemporary Earth is in itself an exotic era, although
ironically decades later all that period filming has since become
fascinating in its own right. The past is indeed a foreign country.

The regulars are well worth watching. Hartnell seemed a bit low-energy
in the first half of episode one, but that's presumably because the
situation itself lacks urgency. He's just being a tourist. By the time
we hit episode four, no one could doubt that he's firing on all cylinders.
It's a classic moment when he stares down the War Machine at the end of
part three. It's also fun to see the flimsiness of the Doctor's
justifications for not calling in the police. He clearly doesn't want
them involved because he doesn't like them. It's too big for them, it's
too small for them, they'd get in our way, they couldn't achieve
anything...

Ben and Polly are unusually well-written for companions, being less
generic than any since Ian, Barbara and Susan. Thought had clearly gone
into them. Ben speaks in the accent Dodo should have been allowed only
four months previously, while I admire Michael Craze's desperate energy
after escaping from WOTAN's minions in episode three as he's trying to
convince Sir Charles. I also derived some small amusement from him
carefully not grabbing Polly's breasts when pulling her to safety at the
end of episode four. She's taller than him, you see.

I have a fannish observation. Isn't that General Scobie from Spearhead
from Space standing behind Sir Charles in episode three? It's at 21 min
55 seconds. He looks so similar that I'm half-convinced it's the same
actor, although, even if not, I'm happy to pretend it's the same
character.

It's a surprising story, never being quite what you'd expect of its
genre. Episode two's ending surprised me, for instance. Not in a big
way, but just in that I hadn't been expecting the credits to roll.
Similarly the Doctor just wanders straight in to see WOTAN in episode one,
while later on there's a homeless tramp as a character. He gets dialogue
and everything. You have Hartnell in a nightclub. "Dig your fab gear."
You have the alien-looking GPO Tower. You have that bad-tempered War
Machine #9 randomly going nuts. You have that extreme and painful-looking
reaction from anyone resisting hypnosis.

However, it's not a particularly intellectual story, even if it's
intelligently written. Ian Stuart Black was quite a big name in
television writing, not a 1960s Douglas Adams or anything but certainly a
powerful figure in the industry. WOTAN is pretty stupid, although
charmingly so. "On the contrary, it's we who have broken down. We have
failed." I do like that as a megalomaniac rationale. "Further progress
is impossible" is clearly absurd, though. The War Machines themselves are
basically dumb fun, while had the story chosen to go down the hypnosis
route then WOTAN being able to plug into all telecommunications would have
made it feel more relevant today. Evil junk calls. Evil spam, in other
words.

In short, it's dumb fun done well. It also really benefits from being
extant since so many of its virtues are in the production, such as
Hartnell, the direction and all that location shooting. A lot of
Troughton-era stories would be very similar to this template, but much
less interestingly... and of course this got there first.

The War Machines is a landmark story for its time. It's the
first true contemporary Doctor Who tale, broadcast in 1966 and set
in the same year, showing London in all its swinging, vibrant hipness.
It's the first time present-day Earth comes under attack in a precursor to
countless future adventures, anticipating the third Doctor/UNIT template
well before the popularly accepted benchmarks, The Web of
Fear and The Invasion. The Doctor insinuates
his way into the establishment with alarming ease, helping civil servants,
politicians and the military in the defence of London. For William
Hartnell and his era, this feels very odd indeed, but is at the same quite
refreshing in its difference.

It looks very good. This is Michael Ferguson's directorial debut for
the programme, and an impressive one at that. There are imaginative camera
angles (the opening high shot is excellent), interesting zooms,
distinctive arty shots (the bicycle wheel), well-edited montages and
action scenes. It may not have the obsessive precision of Douglas
Camfield, but the soldiers' arrival at the warehouse in episode three is
very good, which Ferguson would repeat in The Ambassadors
of Death. Also noteworthy is the way in which the crisis is
communicated. We have several shots of people in a pub being updated via
the television; a zoom in on a car radio cuts to the home of a couple
listening to the same broadcast; we then see the Doctor and co also tuned
in. In just a few shots, a citywide emergency is convincingly conveyed;
the fact that both the television and radio announcers were real-life BBC
personalities is a great boost of realism.

The aforementioned vibrant hipness is well and truly on display during
the scenes in the Inferno nightclub, full of cool cats, Sloane Rangers,
bright young things (etc). Whether the authenticity of sixties club-life
is accurately depicted is debatable, but for children's television there
has to be some sanitisation; however we're free to imagine cocaine
snorting going on in the toilets! It's also unlikely a lone male,
especially one in a sailor's uniform, would be granted entry.
Nevertheless, this G-rated slice of swinging London is quite fun to watch.

The story also introduces us to Ben and Polly, two exceptionally
characterised individuals, with very good performances from Michael Craze
and Anneke Wills. It's great to see them enter the TARDIS at the end.
Equally and oppositely, I'm glad to see the back of Dodo. She wasn't the
most memorable of companions and, unhappily, Jackie Lane missed more than
she hit. Her final outing is a fairly mediocre one, especially when acting
possessed, although being written out halfway through and denied a
departure scene is rather ignominious, given she was a regular. John
Harvey is very wooden as Brett; in fact, he's livelier during his moments
of possession than when he's being normal! Even Hartnell struggles against
possession: the Doctor fighting off WOTAN's attempts to control him in
episode two is not the actor's finest hour, albeit through overacting. But
worst of all is the actor playing the tramp: he's absolutely dreadful, but
thankfully everyone else makes the most of largely underwritten roles.

And it's the writing that really lets The War Machines down.
That doesn't mean the overall concept: the apprehension regarding
computers looks archaic nowadays, but back then was a deep cause for
concern, pre-dating similarly themed films, both well remembered (2001: A
Space Odyssey) and the lesser known (Colossus: The Forbin Project) by two
years. No, it's in the smaller things, the details, where the story is
wanting. There are glaring plot deficiencies, some of which have been
commented on many times before, including the reporting of the tramp's
death and the War Machine entering the tower lift. Ben's escape from the
warehouse in part three is horribly contrived and the same episode's
cliffhanger, although remarkable from a visual standpoint, is in fact a
very stupid act on the Doctor's part. The infamous "Doctor Who is
required" line is also a shocker.

Pacing is also a problem. The first two episodes aren't amazingly
quick, but at least they're character based; the final half is simply a
boring runaround, which the great look cannot redeem. For example, the
fight between the soldiers and the possessed workers in the warehouse is,
like everything else, well shot and edited, but it's also interminably
long. Indeed, the whole final episode is very dull, the battles and
showdowns all very uninspiring. The titular machines aren't that
impressive, as they're far too unwieldy and thus can't be perceived as a
major threat, especially as we never see more than one at a time. WOTAN
itself is far more interesting as chief adversary, but is hardly explored
at all. The potential for the first mad computer of the series is wasted
and we're stuck with an overgrown photocopier.

The War Machines is a prime example of a good idea let down by
the execution. In spite of all its assets - the visuals, imagery and
introduction of Ben and Polly the highlights - it just doesn't engage.
6.5/10

The last serial of season 3 is so worlds apart from any previous story
in the Hartnell Era that it may arguably represent Doctor Who's
most sudden shift in style and ethos. The mannered theatrical performances
of past stories give way to a more naturalist approach and slow-paced
stories with carefully weaving plots give way to faster-paced,
straightforward invasion tales with careless plot holes. It may be
surprising to note that this is the first Doctor Who adventure to
be set entirely present day England (unless Planet of
Giants counts); it took three seasons to arrive to the present day,
and now that the series was becoming self-conscious of its relevancy to
the time and place of its audience, it would hereon be reluctant to move
away from present-day invasion stories set in England (as New Who
testifies nearly half a century later).

So here we have it folks; the mission statement has been rewritten, the
blueprint for both the base-under-siege Troughton era and UNIT Pertwee era
all have their roots here. It must be established that as an invasion
story it's definitely average, but quite serviceable; the plot is very
simple, but has a few holes e.g. a bit off on its sense of scale and time
progression. It is interesting watching the series attempt a large-scale
military operation for the first time; the choreography simply can't cope
with the demands, so the result is a confusing mish-mash of large robots
shooting off steam (literally) whilst soldiers run around aimlessly. The
story benefits, rather than loses, by retaining some of the Hartnell era's
charming whimsy, but even this is metaphorically shed with the abrupt and
offscreen departure of Dodo as the Doctor finds himself hipper, cooler
more urbane companions in the form of Ben and Polly.